Cannes

Cannes, France, on the French Riviera, is best known for its film festival, which each year attracts the stars of the entertainment world. The city's motto - "Life is a festival" - is a perfect creed for inhabitants of a resort town overlooking the sparkling Mediterranean Sea and peppered with glitzy celebrities. The 62nd Cannes Film Festival opens Wednesday and runs until May 24. This year's highlights are expected to include the premiere of Quentin Tarantino's new film, Inglourious Basterds, starring Brad Pitt, as well as Disney's new animated film, Up. Here are fives things to do in Cannes: 1 Sniff the air : Get a whiff of how French perfume is made, from the processing of raw materials to the finished product at Musee International de la Parfumerie.

Verna Mae Peacock Cann, a retired social worker and church musician, died of congestive heart failure Aug. 27 at Sinai Hospital. The Parkton resident was 81. Born Verna Mae Peacock in Durham, N.C., she was the daughter of James Otis Peacock and Christine Smith Peacock. She attended Durham public schools and the Mary Potter Academy, a boarding school, before she moved to Baltimore at age 16. She completed adult evening school at City College. She also had an associate of arts degree from Baltimore City Community College.

Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of "The Great Gatsby" will kick off the 66th Festival de Cannes, organizers announced today . "It is a great honor for all those who have worked on 'The Great Gatsby' to open the Cannes Film Festival," Luhrmann said in a statement. "We are thrilled to return to a country, place and festival that has always been so close to our hearts, not only because my first film 'Strictly Ballroom' was screened there 21 years ago, but also because F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote some of the most poignant and beautiful passages of his extraordinary novel just a short distance away at a villa outside Saint-Raphaël.

At first blush, the New York Yankees signing this weekend of free-agent catcher Brian McCann to a five-year, $85 million deal could be considered good news for the Orioles, at least as it pertains to catcher Matt Wieters. For one, the deep-pocket Yankees have, at least for now anyway, filled their hole at catcher, meaning the position shouldn't be a priority in the 2015 offseason when Wieters can be a free agent. Also, although five years and $85 million would be the largest contract ever given out by the Orioles in terms of average annual value (Adam Jones received an $85.5 million extension, but that was for six years)

John Waters' "Serial Mom" has been chosen as the closing night film for this year's Cannes Film Festival, being held in France May 12-22."This is wonderful," Mr. Waters said from his Baltimore office yesterday. "I'm excited, are you kidding? Closing night, with black tie and the whole thing, this is a big deal. I'm thrilled."I'll be going, and Kathleen (Turner, star of 'Serial Mom') will be there too. You know, she's the type of star they just love over there. It'll be great.""Serial Mom" did not, however, win a berth in Cannes' highly prized official competition.

CANNES, France -- Diane Keaton? Meryl Streep? Sharon Stone? No, the last movie star Cannes resident Yvon Orengo met was Sophia Loren more than 30 years ago.That was back when film stars traveled without a retinue of brawny bodyguards, when local residents could slip into film showings, and everybody strolled the seafront walkway at night, from butchers and bakers to the cinema's best and brightest.But those days are long gone.Today, residents can't even get within several blocks of the film festival, which staged its grand opening Wednesday night.

Opening Wednesday, the 59th Festival de Cannes unfurls its red carpet just in time for a planned municipal police strike. It won't be the first strike scheduled around festival time in the French Riviera town famous for being famous, and for being beautiful, and for treating the motion picture arts and sciences like cultural gold. But if the cops walk, will anyone notice? The Cannes film festival - the premier show business pileup of art, commerce, cleavage and Brad Pitt stubble - promises its customary blend of Hollywood and international cinema.

Baltimore helped rock the 60th Cannes Film Festival on Saturday night with a screening of the U2 concert documentary U2 3D, produced by former Baltimore Ravens President David Modell and his brother, John, and co-directed by Baltimore native Mark Pellington. Declaring "Happy birthday, Cannes!" on the red carpet, singer Bono led U2 in a mini-concert for a crowd of 5,000, by David Modell's estimate. "As far as I have been told, this performance was the first and only one on the steps leading to the Palais [des Festivals]

By Stephen Hunter and Stephen Hunter,Sun Film Critic | October 16, 1990

The collection of prize-winning commercials opening today at the Charles under the title "Cannes Goods III" is enjoyable, but its lessons are by this time commonplace.Taken together the commercials simply illustrate a principle that has been obvious on the feature screen for some time now, and explain why so many commercial directors end up as feature directors, and that's simply because the methodology of television advertising has so aped the methodology of the feature film that by now they are nearly interchangeable.

HALF THE people in Hollywood are dying to be discovered and the other half are afraid they will be," said the actor Lionel Barrymore. My favorite story of late is about a press agent. Not just any press agent, but the queen of them all these days - the party-giver, movie premiere maker, social fixer Peggy Siegal. There she was at Cannes for the Film Festival, well, not r-e-a-l-l-y for the festival itself, more for the atmosphere and contacts. There were only about six American films seen at Cannes during that period, and most of the foreign movies were pretty deadly.

When the Irish-born novelist Colum McCann sits before a blank page, he launches himself into a vast, empty space. He's surrounded by fog on all sides, so he can't tell if his vehicle is right side up or upside down. The craft he's maneuvering is clunky, and the throttle sticks. No wonder the National Book Award-winning author felt compelled to write "TransAtlantic" about three fraught, historic journeys to Ireland in the 19th and 20th centuries. The first chronicles aviators John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown, who in June 1919 made the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of "The Great Gatsby" will kick off the 66th Festival de Cannes, organizers announced today . "It is a great honor for all those who have worked on 'The Great Gatsby' to open the Cannes Film Festival," Luhrmann said in a statement. "We are thrilled to return to a country, place and festival that has always been so close to our hearts, not only because my first film 'Strictly Ballroom' was screened there 21 years ago, but also because F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote some of the most poignant and beautiful passages of his extraordinary novel just a short distance away at a villa outside Saint-Raphaël.

The family of Annie McCann, the Virginia teenager found dead near a Baltimore housing project in November 2008, have increased the reward they're offering for tips in the case - to $15,000 - and launched a new website . Dan and Mary Jane McCann have been fighting the city since their daughter mysteriously ran away from their Fairfax County, Va., home on Nov. 2. An autopsy determined that Annie, 16, had died from a lethal does of lidocaine...

Dick and Brenda Horst, of Ellicott City, announce the engagement of their daughter, Megan Nicole Horst, to Timothy Gerald McCann, son of James and Lucille McCann, of Wappingers Falls, N.Y. The bride-to-be is a 2001 graduate of Centennial High School and a graduate of Syracuse University, where she received a dual Bachelor of Science in finance and marketing. She is currently employed by the Blackstone Group, in New York City. The future groom is a 2003 graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where he received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance.

Two days before her body was found next to a trash bin in Southeast Baltimore, Annie McCann drank a cappuccino with extra whipped cream at a Little Italy pastry shop. She asked to try a cannoli and got a free sample. A waitress at Vaccaro's recalled seeing the 16-year-old girl, describing her as "friendly and polite," a teenager who "seemed nice. " Annie was with an older woman, and the two sat at table No. 8 for about 40 minutes. This account comes from the notes of Davis W. Morton, a retired homicide detective who interviewed the waitress for two hours on behalf of Annie's parents and drew a sketch of the mysterious woman, hoping she could finally bring the answers the McCanns have sought.

The parents of Annie McCann, the young Virginia girl who disappeared from her suburban Washington home four years ago and was found dead in Baltimore, say there is a "significant new investigative lead" in the case. Mary Jane and Daniel McCann plan to discuss the information at a news conference on Thursday in Washington. In a statement, the long-grieving parents say they held a "promising meeting" with the new head of the Baltimore Police Department's homicide unit. Annie, who was 16, left her home in Alexandria, Va., in November 2008 and was found dead near a trash bin in the Perkins Homes public housing complex in Southeast Baltimore.

To see Jada Pinkett now, you would never believe Jada Pinkett then. Now Miss Pinkett, sitting and smiling under an uncharacteristically cloudy and sunless Riviera sky, wearing a baseball cap and a wool athletic jacket for warmth, is the kind of young woman you'd like your daughter to be: She's smart and beautiful and accomplished, with a ready laugh and a confidence factor that's way off the charts.But now is the afterglow of success at the Cannes International Film Festival, with a starring role in what will be a hot movie, two years on a popular TV show and dozens of guest-starring appearances behind her.Then was a hood called Pimlico in the city of Baltimore, whose streets can be as mean as any walked by man."

Native son Barry Levinson will introduce the opening-night shorts program of the Maryland Film Festival on May 1, and on May 26 (according to trade reports) screen his latest picture, What Just Happened?, a comedy-drama about a Hollywood producer played by Robert De Niro, as the Cannes Film Festival's closing night attraction. Maryland festival director Jed Dietz said in an e-mail yesterday, "Barry launched the first MFF Opening Night 10 years ago, so it's especially great he will host our Opening Night short filmmakers next week -- opening our 10th festival, and closing Cannes in the space of a few weeks seems like a perfect expression of Barry's appetite for all parts of the movie art form."

By Justin Fenton and Peter Hermann, The Baltimore Sun | November 30, 2011

A Baltimore man has been arrested in the killing of a 26-year-old Northeast Baltimore woman, a development that parents of a runaway Virginia teen hope may yield new leads in their daughter's mysterious death. Police say Darnell Kinlaw, 21, confessed to fatally shooting Lakeisha Player inside her home on Nov. 11 and stealing her candy-apple red car, a purchase that friends say had been a point of pride for her. Kinlaw told police that Player was his girlfriend. Kinlaw has a long record, charged eight times with stealing cars and twice with burglary, one case that was filed by his mother who said he broke into the family home and took valuables after being kicked out for stealing.

The Ravens announced today that they have waived cornerback Bryan McCann and promoted outside linebacker Chavis Williams from the practice squad to their 53-man roster. Williams (6 feet 3, 227 pounds) signed with the Ravens as an undrafted free agent in July. He played four seasons at Alabama, making 17 tackles in 33 career games. The Ravens' linebacker depth has been challenged with Prescott Burgess going on season-ending injured reserve with a torn abdominal muscle Tuesday, and Dannell Ellerbe sidelined with a hamstring injury.